Debra Borchardt
MindMed (NASDAQ: MNMD) shareholders have been taken on quite the trip over the last few days as the company uplisted from the Over The Counter Market to the big time at the NASDAQ. The stock jumped to over $5 a share in its last days at the OTC Markets, only to move to midtown Manhattan and see the shares plunge 29% in its debut. The stock closed at $4.02 on Tuesday. Some buyers look like they are jumping back in as early trading on Wednesday is seeing a 10% increase in price.
Last week, CEO J.R. Rahn said “The listing of our stock on the Nasdaq represents a significant milestone in our growth as a publicly-traded company. We believe this listing will increase our visibility in the marketplace, improve liquidity, broaden and diversify our shareholder base, and ultimately enhance long-term shareholder value. I would like to thank our employees, management, directors and our many collaborators for their hard work in making MindMed a member of the Nasdaq exchange, an important step that will help facilitate our mission to discover, develop and deploy psychedelic inspired medicines and therapies to address addiction and mental illness.”
MindMed is a clinical-stage psychedelic medicine biotech company that discovers, develops, and deploys psychedelic-inspired medicines and therapies to address addiction and mental illness. The company is assembling a compelling drug development pipeline of innovative treatments based on psychedelic substances including Psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, DMT and an Ibogaine derivative, 18-MC. MindMed will retain its listing on the Neo Exchange Inc. under the symbol “MMED”
NASDAQ Is Tripping
NASDAQ has always been a home to emerging biotech companies. It has now become the goal of many psychedelic-based biotech companies to call the marketplace home as well. Compass Pathways listed at the exchange in September 2020. That company listed at roughly $29 and was lately trading at $39. Its largest shareholder is Atai Life Sciences, which owns 29% of the stock. Compass has five analysts covering the stock with an average price target of $70.
Atai Life Sciences will be joining its peers on the NASDAQ soon enough. The company is one of the earlier psychedelic medicine biggies that was founded in 2018 and is based in Berlin. To date, Atai has raised more than $362 million in private funding from a variety of investors with the most famous being Peter Thiel and his firm, Thiel Capital. Last week the company filed for a 4100 million offering and noted its plans to list on the NASDAQ using the symbol ATAI. Atai currently has no revenue and reported a net loss of $178.6 million last year. According to the company’s filing, operating costs have increased to $104.1 million. Atai said it had $97.2 million in cash at the end of last year.
